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Last updated on August 9th, 2017 at 03:47 pm
Indian Muslims are rioting again, this time over a newspaper’s depiction of a Muslim shrine on playing cards:
The protests started in the morning soon after the markets opened from the downtown locality of Maisuma — the traditional stronghold of Jammu-Kashmir Liberation Front. The anger soon spilled over to the nearby Lal Chowk, where shopkeepers downed shutters in protest. As the mob turned violent, the police used force and fired tear gas shells. While this broke the crowd, it failed to quell the anger.
Meanwhile, in Pakistan:
Thousands of Pakistani children, mostly students of Islamic schools, rallied in Karachi on Tuesday carrying caskets covered with U.S., Israeli and Danish flags to protest against cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad.
Shouting “Hang the culprits” and “Down with America”, around 4,000 students, aged between 6 and 15 years, paraded for half a kilometre and torched an effigy of the Danish prime minister, along with the caskets and flags.
In Nigeria, the Daily Sun— “Nigeria’s King of the Tabloids”—reports the arrest of 463 Motoon rioters:
[Inspector General of Police Mr. Sunday] Ehindero, who assured that the suspects would be diligently prosecuted, said “I will mobilize police lawyers to ensure they are prosecuted in the High Court. They must face the consequences of their action. We will deal with these vagabonds who claim they are reacting to one cartoon. We will deal with them,” he stressed.
One vagabond is of particular interest:
Disclosing that some of the suspects were arrested with jewelry, clothes, and other exhibits looted from the homes of their victims, Ehindero added that the 20-year-old secondary school girl who allegedly sparked off the riot in Bauchi state was also in police custody.
“We will deal with her, and she will tell us who sent her to foment trouble. I learnt the girl was once married and divorced. How did she get into SS1 in the school. We may also interrogate the school authorities to tell us their own involvement,” he said.
Hmm. Let’s find out a little more about this Bauchi chick:
Muslims in Bauchi State had last week demonstrated against the cartoon, but the latest trouble started at Government Day Secondary School, Shadawaki Barrack after a female Christian teacher told a female Muslim student to stop reading the Quran and pay attention while a lesson was going on.
The student refused, the teacher collected the Quran from her. Male students misinterpreted the action and alleged that the teacher had desecrated the Quran.
She was manhandled. Her escape to the principal’s office did not safe her as the students descended on both the principal and the teacher.
Sensing that this could breed further violence, the school authorities closed it down.
The students dispersed, only to regroup on Yandoka Road chanting songs that a Christian teacher had desecrated the Quran.
Miscreants took the opportunity to smash car windscreens and destroy business premises.
The end result of this classroom confrontation?
State Secretary of the Nigerian Red Cross Society, Adamu Abubakar, confirmed that three persons died and that 15 others are receiving treatment in hospital.
UPDATE. Must-read Motoon column from Kathleen Parker.
UPDATE II. Cairo University students discuss Danish product bans:
Wissam Sherif, 19, and his friend, Ehab Erfan, 18, gazed at the display booth and lamented their breakfasts without Danish butter and their favorite Danish processed cheese. They laughed and said they were relieved that they’d outgrown Lego, the Danish toy maker.
“Wait. What about Nestle?” Sherif asked, with panic in his voice.
“No, it’s Swiss,” Erfan replied.
“Good,” Sherif said. “Because I can’t live without my Nescafe.”
